Shuichi Shindou is determined to take his band Bad Luck to the top of the Japanese pop charts. With his drive, talent, and satiny singing voice, he just might stand a chance. But Fate throws a wrench into his well-oiled machine in the form of a handsome stranger named Yuki, a romance writer with an attitude. Yuki is Shuichi's biggest critic, but as the two young artists gravitate towards each other, friendship, and perhaps something more, is sure to blossom.

Long story short: beginning was awesome with the craziness, dragged on a bit bit new characters, more craziness, kept dragging on the plot through the mud, and at the end pissed me off so bad that I sold my entire manga collection to the nearest recycling bookstore. The fact that there was a sequel pissed me even more.

Beginning was great, but don't expect the ending have the same awesomeness as the beginning.

Seriously i like but hate this manga at the same time. Yes the humor was good and i must say the drama roller coaster in Shuichi & Yuki's relationship was intense. BUT MAN how can Shuichi stay with Yuki the way he treats him?? Not only does he cheat, he is cold, mean, ignores him, and not once has he said I love you!?!?! But Shuichi seems to drool if he is shown one bit of affection...Is he a goddamn MASOCHIST or just plain straight dumb to take all that mental abuse I just wished their characters weren't soooo extreme because if i literally met people that had EITHER of their personality I would slap them and send them for therapy.

It started out great. It had real promise. Shuichi had a normal life, he looked great, had clear ambitions and problems. But around the part where the anime starts and the author turns him, a high school graduate plus some more years, to a 12 year old cartoon, it went downhill. This manga was entertaining, but it became too silly. Let me reiterate to emphasize. It was downright retarded. I'm okay with shenanigans but the beginning of this book really lead me to believe that it had a serious itinerary. Frikking pandas, gaijins and stupid songs and worse characters (thats a statement). I was confused many times. And the manga didnt really have an under layer, for all the chapters that it s put out. The closest thing was Yuki's past, which turns out to be .. Oh shocker, betrayal. It only had too many overlayers of gunfighting and the like. This isnt even an action manga; all that stuff was unneccesary and a waste of money. The ending sucked. I dont even understand the last page. Although thats prolly because they translated it wrong.I gave this a 10 before, because of the anime, but I realised that the manga is completely different in that it s drawn out and carelessly/recklessly made. The author was clearly writing this as she went along. She completely scrapped the beginning part which i loved so much and hoped that none of her readers would notice. What happened to Shuichis family? His classmates? This book is one dimensional. Oh boy meets boy. Get together break up, get together, break up. Lets visit the past? Get back together. Now choose between your career or your love. Happy ending. With the addition of many many useless charcters.

What's not to be said about this series? It's funny, witty, and a love story. The constant change of emotion between the characters keeps you laughing (along with the quick dialogue adds a touch of humor to those who understand it.) An easy manga to follow and even for a 'boys love' manga, it's soft and pleasent to read. The only downside is the ever changing art. Right when you get used to the look and feel, it changes a bit with each volume. (This is not necessarily a bad thing and only shows improvement in the artists ability on their character.) When it comes down to it, this will either make you laugh or cry. (Either you love or hate it. There is no in between.)

If you need something to make you smile, read this. The very open and almost rude way the character's interact is hilarious and I I was actually interested in the relationship (something I've been finding harder and harder to do with the BL genre lately). Could've used greater intensity on certain elements is my only complaint, though I do agree the New York arc was rather a fail, but again an intensity issue. (I should add when I mean intensity, I'm talking about the plot elements...)

I've finally been able to finish this after five years, since I first uncovered it. It had brought me into a whole new world called manga. This is by far one of my favourite series. It has it's highs and lows, but overall, there is a story there, and to me.. it was beautiful. It was funny, it was frustrating, it was warming, and it was sad. I highly recommend this series.

This is one awsome manga. It's filled with original, funny and wierd charaters, which make sure that you'r never bored. The story is very different than most shounen-ai. And it just keeps getting better and better as the story progresses, the art get's a lot better too. I love Murakamis random humor, in the end you just stop getting surprised when something insane suddenly happens. Not that it makes it less entertaning. And Shuichi is a very lovable main character, he really makes it's worth it all.^^ So cute.

Definetly a must read for anyone who needs a refreshing, hillarious and different shounen-ai.

This was the first manga I read, and I loved it. Even after reading many others I can still say it was fun, the plot was nicely developed, dramatic and serious at times, yet totally hilarious at other times. And yes, Shuichi is really annoying at times.And it's far better than the anime.

I liked it... but I couldn't help getting frustrated. I found the series hard to follow from the beginning, and although it stabilized for a while, the New York arc onward was completely insane.... The plot seems rushed, and while that may be intended, I barely have time to remember a new character before they're gone for a bit...

A lot was assumed here, the reader does not have an omniscient point of view, we do NOT know the main characters' true intentions at all times. That may have been what I didn't like...

As Guilty said, the comedy does let the series down... it's just too slapstick most of the time.